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If the only meaningful responsibilities of a manager are overseeing drills and practice, handling the bullpen, and making out the lineup card, then Matheny is fine and there’s no reason to replace him.
But, I think that a manager’s primary responsibility is to bring out the best in his players. In fact, the whole reason for competition is for a player to bring out the best in himself, his teammates, and even the opposing players. A manager should be pushing his players to do that. He should be insisting that they drive themselves to get better. Matheny is too worried about ‘protecting his players’ rather than pushing them to excel. That’s why we have bad baserunning, poor defense, unpredictable offense because of players underperforming, and emphasis on rest, rest, and more rest rather than on hard work. When Molina was complaining about playing time last year, it was generally construed by the local media, and so, the fans, that he was being selfish. I think what Molina was trying to say is ‘I don’t want rest. I don’t want to be protected by my manager. Treat me like the battle-hardened veteran that I am rather than as one of Matheny’s little helpers.’ Matheny is not getting results for his players and in games. I think its been pretty well established that he is not going to change.Too bad for Bowman. He was pretty good in 2016 and 2017, his first two years with the Cardinals. WHIP for 2016 was 1.167, and for 2017 it was 1.193.
I wish Holland the best. We would be a much better team if he was the guy our FO thought we were getting.
I fully expect Holland to get shelled the next time he hits the mound. Last night both of his strikeouts were gotten because both batters batters reached way out of the strike zone for that down and low slider that he throws. That’s not going to happen next time.
Even though he’s just a high school kid, I have a good vibe about Gorman. (Sorry. But ‘a good vibe’ is about as reliable as anything else we have so far.) And with the way Kelly has been hitting, I’d be willing to put Gorman in at 3, and move Kelly all the way down to that open spot at 11. Then, I think I’d put Roberts in at 12, and move everybody else down one place with Valera dropping off the list.
CC, there are all kinds of things I know nothing about. I wonder if $3.3M is enough to open a Foundation which would allow the kid to save a lot of money which would otherwise go to taxes.
18 years old and $3.3M in the bank. Yikes!
I’m guessing that he’s either running players back and forth to the DL for every little bump or scrape, or his players aren’t focused enough to keep themselves out of injury trouble. We’re hearing about the DL way too much, IMO.
I might be wrong. But I can’t recall a time that one of LaRussa’s players was released midseason for poor performance.
What about the bad baserunning and generally sloppy play. Is that the new norm for you, Pads?
Every year there seems to be something else that goes wrong that Matheny has no responsibility for.
I find it hard to imagine that Jhonny Peralta and Jonathon Broxton would have quit playing the way they did if LaRussa was manager. And I can’t help but wonder if Fowler, Cecil, and maybe Leake and Holland wouldn’t have performed better. I know he would not have put up with the sloppy play that is a consistent characteristic of Matheny’s teams. There were several things I disliked about LaRussa, but you could never question his desire to win, or his insistence that his players play up to the full level of their talent, and maybe then some. I’m not sure what drives Matheny. I used to think that the next manager might not be any better than Matheny, and that might be true. But sometimes you just have to take a chance.
Here are two links on Chris Duncan:
Chris Duncan steps away from radio gig at 101ESPN for cancer battle
I haven’t heard anything about him lately. Its something that nobody wants to talk about. For now, we just wait, and pray.
Bad baserunning, poor defense, players constantly getting injured, veterans not performing up to expectations, lackadaisical spring training, ruining pitchers by telling them to pitch up in the zone, and rest, rest, and more rest … These are all defining characteristics of Matheny’s tenure as manger. And I’m sick of it. He needs to go. He’s squandering the hard work of others in the organization, especially the front office.
June 7, 2018 at 4:59 pm in reply to: Trade Ideas/Acquisition Ideas/Non-Cards Rumors – 2017-2018 #55781I don’t really believe in absolutes and ‘0 chance’ is an absolute. But I agree with mspaid in that the possibility of the Cardinals signing Machado is almost nonexistent. I don’t think there will be many bidders for Machado mainly because of luxury tax issues. But then it only takes one bidder to run the price up, and for sure that bidder won’t be the Cardinals.
What happened to the Cardinals focus on athleticism? I’m not complaining. Just commenting. Also, it kind of seems like they were drafting for need rather than ‘best player available’.
The report on Steven Gingery sounds very encouraging until the the analyst tells us that he’s a sure #4 starter. Not that #4 is bad. Just not a player to get overly excited about yet.
The bottom line is, as always, ‘wait and see’. At one time I had high hopes for Dylan Carlso, Bryce Denton, and even JD Murders who was cut today to name a few.
MLB says Edgar Gonzalez is 6’1. I found a report (Perfect Game) that says he’s 6’4 with an ‘outstanding CB’. I have to think that Brian will set the record straight as time permits.
After reading Lance McClanahan’s scouting report, I’m surprised that he has still not been taken. I’m guessing the scouts/organizations are looking at him as a late inning reliever rather than a starter.
With DeJong as our possible third baseman of the future, and with 21 year old Evan Mendoz looking pretty good at Memphis, and 19 year old Elehuris Montero looking especially good at Peoria, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Gorman moved to 1B sooner rather than later. I thought for sure they’d take a pitcher in the first round, but I like this pick.
I’v had enough of Wong, also. Every year there’s some reason why he can’t perform up to expectations.
June 1, 2018 at 3:22 pm in reply to: Trade Ideas/Acquisition Ideas/Non-Cards Rumors – 2017-2018 #54752Fowler is 5 for his last 8. It sure would be a relief, and a lift for the team, if that turned out to be the beginning of something.
Jags… No, I don’t know if there were other suitors for Norris. But he signed for one year and $3M. I think that tells you something. Mikolas was quoted as saying he came to the Cardinals because he grew up in Jupiter and was familiar with the organization. There is very little to support the notion that the Cardinals beat out the other clubs that were interested in him. Regardless, neither of those signings were comparable to the Fowler, Leake, or even the Cecil signings, all of which turned out to be dismal failures. I would not throw good money after bad by allowing this front office to sign any more of the higher profile, and higher cost, free agents. There is absolutely no reason to anticipate success based on a growing history of failures.
‘Totally separate departments’ doesn’t mean Flores has no input. But I do want to apologize for suggesting that he might be the main culprit for these free agent failures. Obviously, I don’t know who the real culprit is. Somebody is responsible for this, though.
The front office for the Cardinals has demonstrated time and time again that they are not capable of targeting and signing a free agent that is worth the money. Mikolas came to St. Louis because he lives in Jupiter and was familiar with the Cardinals. They got Norris really cheap because nobody else would make him an offer. They’ve spent millions upon millions of dollars in the free agent market and have not been successful in years. All that money is down the drain. Its hard to imagine another team trading for Cecil or Fowler. We’re stuck with them unless we want to just let them go, and say we failed and now have $60M of dead money to add to the Leake fiasco.
I would love to know how much input Randy Flores has in the free agent signings. Fores is responsible for the coming draft.
If the player was traded during the season prior to the offseason of his free agency, we don’t get a pick. We get nothing but a Machado rental for a couple, or a few, months.
If we could get Machado in a trade where we didn’t have to give up players that we need, I’d be okay with it. But I don’t think we should ever sign another free agent. The current regime has too much of a propensity to fail in the free agent game. I can’t remember the last time we signed a free agent that really paid off. Even Holliday was kind of dead weight for the last two years of his contract. It would cost a large fortune to sign Machado, and based on previous experience, it probably wouldn’t work out. So stay away. Its too early to pull the plug on Gregerson and Holland, IMO. But there is still Cecil, Fowler, and Leake that are holding this team back. Then, there are the ‘what ifs’ of Pujols, Price, and Heyward. Just stay away.
I’ve said it before, Weaver’s stuff isn’t good enough to throw so many pitches up in the zone. That’s why he keeps giving up the HRs, IMHO. If he’s going to be good and last at the major league level, he’s going to need to be Duncanized (i.e. hammered and hammered about keeping the ball down).
Pugs, I’m here but I have to get outside and do some yard soon.
May 23, 2018 at 11:16 am in reply to: Trade Ideas/Acquisition Ideas/Non-Cards Rumors – 2017-2018 #53771Don’t forget about Mikolas.
Glad to see Fowler sitting. Garcia at SS and Carpenter at 2B is unexciting.
If Carpenter is hitting, I’d much rather see him at 1B, also. I thought I could get used to J. Martinez’ lack of defense. But I don’t know anymore. Its really been tough.
May 21, 2018 at 2:54 pm in reply to: Trade Ideas/Acquisition Ideas/Non-Cards Rumors – 2017-2018 #53475Pitching, pitching, pitching. The St. Louis Cardinals are loaded with pitching. Holland will find his mojo. Norris never lost his. Hicks @ 105MPH is presently the talk of MLB. And Lyons might have found his mojo. The starting rotation could be the best in the game. The Cubs don’t have pitching that can compare, and IMHO, Machado alone is not enough to offset that. I would love to have Machado long term. Not really interested in him as a rental unless he comes cheap.
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